Holding My Breath

I know I've been talking a lot about my gear lately. A new 17-55, a slightly broken 50mm.... It's just a lot more difficult to photograph anything without gear. Also, I may be a little obsessed. Anyway.

I have another new toy that I actually bought a few months ago but haven't really used yet, partly from inertia, partly from having too much photography stuff already, and partly from not knowing exactly what to photograph with it. It's the Lensbaby macro kit (which mysteriously they name AMACK as well, if anyone understands that maybe they can explain it to me).

Anyway, it consists of two macro filters which I screw onto my Lensbaby. One is +4 which makes you able to focus a bit closer, and one is +10 which makes you able to focus on things a lot closer. Since I like to try things in reasonable steps guess which one I tried first? Oh yeah, the +10.

And man! SUPER shallow depth of field. Like maybe one millimeter. I have never before noticed how much I sway in the wind when I take photos. I mean, I like to think of myself as pretty sturdy, all things being equal. I can handhold for a few seconds with the right lens. But this. I would find focus, then move imperceptibly and the focus was gone. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. And then repeat again. It also may not have helped that I was using the last of  the daylight for this exercise. My shutter speed was never above 1/80s which just never seemed quite fast enough.

So, basically, I was out in the back yard, holding my camera inches away from this flower for about 10 minutes, taking shot after shot and holding my breath the entire time (for maximum picture sharpness, you know - a tried and true technique). I may have been a little light headed by the time the thing was over and done with. Hope I didn't kill too many brain cells!